The Antidote to the Letter of the Week!
Discover how 1 simple activity will solve all of your Letter of the Week woes!
This 1 easy activity will SIMULTANEOUSLY teach…
>> left-to-right tracking,
>> the concept of the alphabetic principle (that our written language is a code for sounds),
>> consonant letter-sound knowledge,
>> short vowel letter-sound knowledge,
>> consonant digraphs (i.e., “sh” or “ck”),
>> the concept that 1 sound could be 2+ letters, 😮
>> phonemic segmentation (the most important phonological awareness beginner skill),
>> beginning decoding, and
>> beginning spelling!
Yep, that's a lot for 1 little ol' activity!
Watch more videos and snag a word list perfect for beginning Kinders' first week of school, using the link below. And get ready to see some achievement acceleration!!!!!
Finally, what do you think of this antidote to the letter of the week? Have you tried it? Do you think it'll help your students?
Please comment below. 🙂
I have used it and the kids pick it up so quickly. Next week I will start again with two homeschool first grade students. I’m excited to do this again.
One doesn’t know her letter sounds.
I forgot to mention that early on we can add in another post-it or letter-sound card with a consonant digraph, such as “th.” That way, from the very beginning of the child’s instruction in how our code works….they get the idea that sounds can be 1 letter….and sounds can be more 2 letters!
This early introduction of “th” or “sh” or “ck” circumvents the problem that many programs create when kids get stuck in a “1 sound, 1 letter” world. Also, many high frequency words include “th” so it’s just more important to learn than “v” or “z.”
The kids get bored by the time I’m half way thru and can’t retain anymore letters. But I do like the jolly phonics jingles and so do they
Great point Pam! Yes, it’s pretty boring to just beat that dead horse for an entire week–especially if you knew the letter already when you began.
I bet the Jolly Phonics jingles emphasize the sounds of the letters, right? That would be good. I sing the alphabet song but with letter-sounds instead of letter names. It’s kinda tricky the first few times! 😉
I signed up for the workshop! Looking forward to it! Also, I tried your link to tge word list for the first week of kinder and it’s not working. Could you help with that? Thus is my first year teaching kinder and I would love to try the build it activity. Thanks!
Sorry about that Cristal! My website host is trying to fix a problem on their end. I’ll email you the Build It word list.
Glad you’re coming to the workshop!!! ?
Love this!!
Would build it and later switch it be the only two activities you do with a small group?
Also, when would switch it be introduced?
Allison, good question. We drop Build It when the children know about 5-7 letter sounds including 1 vowel AND they can segment a CVC word most of the time.
Switch It, at that point, will move the students along faster in letter sound learning, phonemic awareness, and decoding ability.